Meet the ‘sari-tying’ Indian expert

Kuala Lumpur, April 25: While most ladies take their time in tying their saris, Indian man Rakesh Nair has mastered the task of doing in it in a jiffy.For Nair, 40, who has become a specialist at the task, tying a sari was something he learned during his stint in the movie industry in Chennai, at the AVM Studios, back in the 1990s.

“I was impressed with how the men at the studios dressed the actresses. They could tie saris in a jiffy,” a website quoted him as saying. “I learnt how to tie saris and often did it for the starlets, while the old studio hands were responsible for getting the leading ladies ready for the shoot,” he said. Women are required to stand before him in their choli (blouse) and pavvadai (long slip) before he starts draping them with five metres of beautiful saris. Though his job as a logistics manager keeps him busy in his office from Monday through Friday, he still ties saris at the weekend, and he is even booked for weddings, engagements, beauty pageants and dinners. Most women go to him whenever they want to look their best, as he says if the sari is not tied properly, they end up looking clumsy. Nair ties at least five or six saris for women each weekend and if he is working on a beauty pageant, the number can easily reach a dozen. “The South Indian traditional style, the ones you see in Tamil movies, is favoured by many women here,” he said. “Increasingly though, the younger ones prefer the Bollywood, Gujarati or even Bengali style,” he added ANI